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France's sumptuous Palace of Versailles, built in the 17th century by the Sun King Louis XIV, threw its doors open to the public again Saturday but with little certainty over when tourists will return as lockdown curbs are slowly eased.

With improving the health situation, the majority of EU countries plan to lift the controls at their internal borders and the travel restrictions by 15 June, and the others will do so until the end of the month. At a videoconference on Friday, organised by the Croatian Presidency, the EU Home Affairs ministers discussed the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the field of internal border controls and the free movement of persons.

The EU and the UK ended on Friday their fourth round of talks on a future trade deal without achieving a breakthrough, news wires reported. "My job is to tell the truth," EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters. "And to tell the truth, this week there have been no real areas of progress."

On Friday was unveiled the ‘Rapid Action Coronavirus Earth observation’ tool, named RACE, developed by the Commission in coordination with the European Space Agency (ESA). The platform uses Earth observation satellite data to measure the impact of the coronavirus lockdown and monitor post-lockdown recovery, at local, regional and global scale.

The rescEU system increases its preparedness for the jeopardy of forest fire risks in the summer and reinforces its fleet of firefighting aircrafts. The EU is financing purchases by the Swedish government of two water-bombers for the reserve.

The EU set up on Friday a new special unit of investigators to tackle an anticipated surge in financial crime in the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, news wires reported. The European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) will work closely with Europol.

In a resolution, adopted on Thursday with an overwhelming majority, the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) demanded for a swift return to a fully functional Schengen area as to safeguard freedom of movement and ensure the EU’s economic recovery after the pandemic.

Finland’s government announced on Thursday that it would not accept the European Commission’s proposed package for recovery from the coronavirus pandemic in its current form, news wires reported. The Member States are due to discuss the proposal on 19 June. The Commission proposed to raise an unprecedented €750bn of debt to top up joint spending to €1.1 trillion in 2021-27. The package need the unanimous support in order to be accepted.

A regulation that will set out uniform rules to designate which national law should determine the ownership of a claim after it has been assigned on a cross border basis was discussed during the videoconference of EU Justice Ministers on Thursday, convened by the Croatian Presidency.

The EU set up on Friday a new special unit of investigators to tackle an anticipated surge in financial crime in the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, news wires reported. The European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) will work closely with Europol.

Trade commissioner Phil Hogan is considering putting his name forward as a candidate to be the next director-general of the World Trade Organisation, his spokesman said on Sunday cited by Reuters. The post will become vacant at the end of August after incumbent Roberto Azevedo said he would step down a year early.

The European Union and Britain are likely to have to engage in accelerated Brexit talks over the summer because no one expects a breakthrough at the next round of talks, an adviser to the EU’s chief trade negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday.

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